Bob Dylan – What Kind of Love Is This? Review

Here is as fine an example you can get for the elusive nature of Bob Dylan. A remaster and unofficial tape from legendary bootlegger BennyBoy marks one of the few moments and historic collections of Tears of Rage. It is a single flagged for its elusive nature, its long-running spot in writing history from Dylan’s prolific pen. Put to tape in 1967, not released until The Basement Tapes rolled around eight years later, and even then the most recognisable version of the song is likely from the latter release from The Band, Music from Big Pink. Here are the times Dylan put his spin on a legendary, soulful folk track which lingers on as important yet hard-to-come-by documentation of Dylan in a bitter period of his writing.  

Hear those cries of rage on these performances from 1989 to 2008. It became an inconsistent staple for Dylan to fall back onto, with gigs across the world receiving a dose of this deep cut. Each track brings something new to the table despite being the same set of words. Where audience members may be dazzled or even confused by the pace changes and vocal parts from Dylan in his modern era, What Kind of Love is This? serves not only as an exceptional collection of performances but a timeline of changing voices. Why it changed, where it started to get interesting for Dylan to develop his voice in a far-removed style to his earliest works and where it has led him can all be heard here. Take the Paris 1990 performance and settle it in next to Toronto 1992. Take any of these and pair them with one another, the differences between each are astounding. 

Whether this is through the passage of time or the desire to continually turn a deep-cut song into a long and winding instrumental is truly unclear. What is clear, though, is the monumental quality at play. Best of the bunch includes Toronto 1992 for those same lengthy instrumentals and the country-like twang of a tender performance ripped from Hamburg 2004. At its core is a new vocal range for Dylan, and charting the course of those changes over nineteen exceptional performances, is a real and rare treat. This is what Bootleg tapes are all about – the progress from behind the scenes when pulled together, is clearer than anything. This is two decades in the making and the results are confirmation, as if any more was needed, of Dylan and his exceptional vocal power.  

Whatever the case is for these performances, it is stunning to think about what else Dylan has locked away in the vault. Unreleased verses, differing takes of already established songs, you name it, it probably exists. It is the beautiful frustration of wanting to learn more about a musician whose prolific profile is still mired in great mystery – his unique energy and nature keep him firmly in the spotlight but a shadowy figure still. Incredible. What Kind of Love is This? does well to document a fraction of the importance in the frequently bootlegged track. This is just a scratching of the surface – but listen in enough and bask in the real glory which comes from BennyBoy’s exceptional collection of tracks. A must-listen for those hoping to gauge a little more on the live efforts of Dylan.